“Going to see the elephant” was an expression used by enlistees in the Union Army describing the experience of country boys going off to war where they would experience life in ways they could not have imagined.
At the outset of the Civil War the stated objective of the North was to maintain the Union. The Confederate States identified “states rights” as their major objective which would give them the right to function independently. Mainstream historians have commonly agreed that: “Everything stemmed from the slavery issue,” as stated by Professor James McPherson, whose book Battle Cry of Freedom is widely judged to be the authoritative one-volume history of the Civil War.
It was not until September 22, 1862, following the bloody Battle of Antietam that Lincoln issued a preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation, which declared that all slaves in states or parts of states still fighting against the United States on January 1, 1863 would from that time on be forever emancipated. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued his final Emancipation Proclamation. However, it did not free slaves in states then in the Union, the Border States, nor certain parts of Virginia and Louisiana that were under Union control. The Emancipation Proclamation did have the effect of clearly identifying slavery as a vital issue of the war for both citizens of the United States and for its allies.
Great activity is perceived at Fortress Monroe. Troops and ammunition are constantly arriving, the garrison now amounting to thirteen thousand men, and large bodies were moving into the interior, it was thought, with the intention of making for Norfolk by a circuitous route. Up to Thursday evening, slaves were still flocking to the fort. It was discovered that thirty of the slaves belonged to one man in Richmond. He obtained permission to visit the fort to confer with General Butler on the subject of getting his live property back. The General said they came there of their own accord, and could go back with him if they desired it. They were asked if they desired to return with their master. They quickly decided that they preferred to remain with the soldiers in the fort…
By Sharon Lakey
At the 125th anniversary of the surrender of Lee’s army at Appomattox, Steve Wakefield, living historian, had one of those crystalline moments. “I was with the 5th of New Hampshire at the head of the column. When I turned around, I saw 3,000 federal troops standing behind me, all perfectly aligned. “The moment didn’t last long, maybe three seconds, but in those few seconds, I was there.” To be transported through time—those are the seconds a living historian cherishes.
In 1963, Andy Fisher, a history teacher in Concord, VT, attended the 100th observance of the Battle of Gettysburg, a reenactment of the battle that turned the tide in the Civil War. The event was so inspiring to him, he returned home to create the Vermont Civil War Hemlocks, a non-profit group whose goal is education. Three years later, 16-year-old Steve Wakefield went to one of the group’s meetings and joined. He was uniformed and equipped in 1971 and took part in his first reenactment that year.
“I don’t like the term reenactment,” said Wakefield. “I am a living historian.” He goes on to explain that to reenact implies an individual is acting. “We don’t act; during an event, we actually live the experience 24-hours a day. At night, we don’t retire to the tent with a beer cooler.” And anyone who has witnessed the Hemlocks in action, perhaps in something as simple as a parade, recognizes immediately that they are living in the moment, and it is not taken lightly.
Going to see the Elephant, Part 2
By Paul Chouinard, President of the Danville Historical Society
From the outset, both as it assumed status as an independent republic in 1777 and as it entered statehood in1791, Vermont outlawed slavery. Vermont set an example through its progressive position of treating blacks as equals long before the Civil War. There were some instances of Slave-holding in the state, but these were few.
Alexander Twilight, born in 1795 in Corinth was the first black man in America to earn a college degree. He graduated from Middlebury College in 1823. He went on to become a prominent educator in Brownington, VT and to be elected to the VT legislature in 1836.